Connectedness

Connectedness describes the fact, for things as well as ideas, to be joined, fastened, linked, associated, related, attached or in contact. Semantic relations are all forms of connectedness: identity (complete, partial [opposition], null [difference]), intersection (accounting for compatibility and affinity) and assimilation (accounting for analogy [simile, metaphor] and association, through predication). Connectedness is probably the most abstract relationship and corresponds loosely to contiguity in the perceptual reality, often interpreted as causality. It is more abstract than inclusion or membership, which are specific forms of connectedness. In semantics, as opposed to physical reality, relationships are characterized by lability, that is the capacity to change, or the property of being continuously displaced. Even in a fixed hierarchy, such as in a tree-like structure, inclusion and membership are labile top-down and bottom-up. Contiguity and association connect laterally the nodes of distinct trees.